A flock of sparrows roosts in a neighbour’s cedar tree. Though individuals have lived and died a flock has lived there for as long as I’ve been in Dresden, surviving marauding outdoor cats, hawks, and harsh winters like the one drawing to an end. Sparrows are a little plain compared to goldfinches, cardinals, and other gaudier songbirds. Yet their gregariousness and raucous conversations add cheer and livens up a late winter day.
This ferry and the Walpole Island Ferry between Ontario and Michigan have been largely idled by ice since the middle of January. It’s been a harsh winter and the Canadian side of the St. Clair River has been clogged by ice. These ferries are convenient and important links for residents and visitors on both sides of the border and their idling has meant inconvenience for the people and significant loss of revenue for the companies operating the ferries.
I captured the Daldean working in the channel yesterday, prior to the ferry reopening today.
Yet Kendal remained in that position for some time.
No more words necessary.
We got a laugh out of this. It sums up peoples’ attitudes at this period of late winter.
Achilles is the only one of our three dogs who regularly uses, looks in, a mirror to observe. Here he is on the bed watching me photograph him. Chili continues doing this after I enter the room and he can look directly at me.
Like the maple tree all five of us reached out to the sun, enjoying some time outside. We have endured a long, cold, snowy winter. It isn’t over yet, we will have more cold and snow to endure. Yet I think the most brutal and hardest spells are behind us. Winter’s end is closer, each day spring is one day closer. A cardinal was caroling in our Manitoba maple day before yesterday.
The other day, this grand maple tree across the road reached out. It stretched out, straining to reach, grasp what warmth the sun had to impart. On a minus 10C day nearing the end of a long and cold winter, that warmth was very welcome. We joined the maple tree.
ETA: I neglected to include the photo!
Such different temperaments, different personalities. Achilles is (adn I’m anthropomorphizing) deferential, gentle, graceful. Kendal by contrast is bluff, assertive, physical, clumsy. Both are deeply valued, deeply loved companions.
previouslytexan 